Conference paper of the Third North American Correctional and CriminalJustice Psychology Conference (NACCJPC
Since some time now, working alliance has been recognized in psychotherapy as a main factor conducive to positive outcomes (Norcross, 2012). In mandated supervisory context, relevance and manifestation of this factor is far less studied. In the last decade progress was made in this respect. Ross, Polaschek & Ward (2007) published a theoretical framework and Skeem, Eno Louden, Polaschek and Camp (2007) introduced the Dual Role Relationship Inventory, assessing corresponding thoughts of professional and client relating to mutual supervision issues in mandated context. Steps were also made by Tatman & Love who came up with an offender version of Horvath’s Working Alliance Inventory. Building on these steps, a longitudinal study was designed in order to get insight into the development, the specifics and the relevance of working alliance over two years of offender supervision by probation. Two years supervision is the most common penal punishment in The Netherlands. This presentation focuses on the main results for the first two measurement waves (start and after 6-9 months), including constructs deduced by factor analysis on a large set of items including the questionnaires mentionned above and group analyses on different patterns of working alliance development.